Maintenance – Pumpkin Quinoa Pancakes

A good friend brought me a surprise gift last week (…I love surprises!). It was this fantastic book! I love quinoa and cook with it fairly often, but this book brings quinoa to a whole new level…it’s AWESOME! So I got up early this morning and decided to try some pancakes from the book. (By the way, for those of you who not sure how to pronounce it, itsKeen-Wah).

There are quite a few recipes in the book that call for quinoa flour, so I was excited to try it out. All you do is put quinoa into your wheat grinder and voila…QUINOA FLOUR! This particular recipe calls for a 1 1/2 cups of quinoa flour which took a little less than that 1 cup of whole quinoa. My kids were a little skeptical when they saw the quinoa and the pumpkin puree on the counter, but 3 out of 4 of my children LOVED them! Hooray!

I made a few minor adjustments to the recipe

1 1/2 cups quinoa flour

1/4 cup packed brown sugar (I used raw sugar granules that I put in the liquid first to dissolve)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 2/3 cups vanilla soymilk

1 cup pumpkin puree

2 eggs (please be consumer conscious when buying eggs, the best are from a local farmer)

2 TBS olive oil

Combine all the ingredients together until smooth, and pour about 1/4 cup of the batter onto a large non-stick frying pan. The recipe makes about 14 large pancakes.

For the maple walnut apple topping you’ll need

3 apples, peeled and cored

1 TBS coconut olive

2 TBS walnuts

3 TBS maple syrup

Combine all the ingredients in a large saucepan and cook over medium heat until the apples are cooked to the desired consistency. About 15 minutes.

Here is a blurb from the book:

“One of the world’s healthiest foods, quinoa contains a perfect balance of all eight essential amino acids, and is a great source of protein, making it an increasingly popular food choice for those looking to incorporate “superfoods” into their everyday diets. Gluten-free, wheat-free, and nutrient-packed, quinoa is ideal for those who are health-conscious, vegetarian, and/or physically active, as well as for those with gluten intolerance, wheat allergies, and other digestive disorders. But that’s not all: You can eat quinoa guiltlessly knowing it’s free of cholesterol and trans fats. In Quinoa 365 sisters Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming show you how to use this miraculous superfood in all your favourite dishes.”